Saving Mother Ocean
The third book in the Earth Spirit series, Saving Mother Ocean, is a call-to-action in the interest of protecting and preserving the waters upon which all of life on Earth depends. Steve Andrews surveys numerous problems brought on by industrial activities and situates the harmful effects of those activities in an ecological framework. The survey is bolstered by careful research and direct observation. Andrews himself has been actively involved in a number of ecological movements, including Ocean Aid; his account of the crisis is at once personal and political. This book can be seen as a primer toward facilitating ‘ocean literacy’, a critically neglected but vitally needed course for planetary citizenship. Saving Mother Ocean is a disquieting book but it is informative and casts light on many practices likely little known to much of the general public.
Andrews mentions early in the book a documentary by Alan Ereira, From the Heart of the World: Elder Brothers’ Warning (BBC, 1990), about the Kogi, an indigenous tribe from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Readers of Indie Shaman may well recall this documentary and the shamanic tribal leaders, mamos, who feature centrally in it. What Andrews and the mamos share is not only a concern for the destruction wrought on ecosystems by over-exploitation of natural resources in the interest of mass consumerism but a sense of call or responsibility to sound the alarm. The Kogi speak from the mountaintops; Andrews’s compass is wide as the ocean itself.
Saving Mother Ocean is not the cheeriest of reads but recommended for awareness of the scale and magnitude of the problem. The book also provides an annotated list of organizations that readers might consult (e.g., Ocean Cleanup, Blue Planet Society, The Marine Diaries), some suggestions for lifestyle changes and a reading list of books that deal further with the topic.
Book Details: Steve Andrews. Earth Spirit. Saving Mother Ocean. Moon Books (26 November 2021). ISBN 978-1789049657.
Review Details: Earth Spirit. Saving Mother Ocean was reviewed by Christopher Greiner for Indie Shaman magazine and this review was published in Issue 51.
